BAE Systems axes 740 jobs as RAF shrinks

BAE Systems plans to cut 740 jobs, mainly in the north of England, because of
reductions in the size of the RAF.

Cuts are the result of a Government decision to cut one squadron of Harrier jump jets and retire the Nimrod MR2 reconnaissance plane early.Photo: REUTERS

By Amy Wilson

6:06AM BST 10 Sep 2010

Unions warned the cuts were likely to be the "tip of the iceberg" as the Government plans to reduce the defence budget by at least 10pc.

BAE will shed 298 jobs at its site in Warton, Lancashire, 149 at nearby Samlesbury, and another 212 at Brough in east Yorkshire. At Farnborough in Hampshire, 55 jobs will go as well as 26 posts at Chadderton, near Manchester.

The cuts are the result of the Government's decision last year to cut one squadron of Harrier jump jets, retire the Nimrod MR2 reconnaissance plane early, and its plans to further reduce Harrier and Tornado squadrons, BAE said.

The redundancies at Brough are the result of less work on Hawk trainer jets, and at Samlesbury because of fewer contracts from Spirit Aerosystems, a civil aircraft parts maker.

BAE, Britain's biggest manufacturer as well as its biggest defence company, has announced thousands of job cuts in the UK in the last two years. It confirmed yesterday that another 206 jobs will go in its design division, the tail-end of 642 previously-announced redundancies